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SRI LANKA

Published: March 14, 1982

To the Editor: In his informative article ''Sri Lanka, the Resplendent Isle'' (Travel, Feb. 14), Colin de Silva writes of the island's ''hot, tropical climate.''

ravelers who cannot tolerate extreme temperatures can escape the heat and humidity of the lowlands by visiting the beautiful hill country center of Nuwara Eliya.

During our visit to Nuwara Eliya last August, daytime temperatures rarely exceeded 78 degrees, while two blankets were required for warmth in the crisp chill of the 50-degree evenings.

In addition to the salubrious climate, our other memories of Nuwara Eliya include images of cows grazing among golfers on the fairways of the St. Andrew's golf course; turnips, potatoes, carrots and other mid-latitude crops growing in profusion so close to the Equator; and a local cafeteria specializing in ''genuine humbugs,'' ''pitzas'' and other ''short eats.'' KATHERINE S. HEILIGMANN Rowe, Mass. Packing It In To the Editor: We were delighted with the article by Rona Jaffe on ''Packing It In: Secrets of Travel With One Bag'' (Travel, Feb. 7). Our family of four (two adults and two teen-agers) spent last March traveling from rainy, chilly London to warm, sunny Crete, all with one carry-on suitcase apiece, each with shoulder strap. Based on that experience, I would offer some further suggestions.

Plan ahead - way ahead. Packing strategies included preplanning and plastic food storage bags. Never leave a shoe unstuffed - fill them with socks, hose, underwear, then put them in plastic bags and add more underwear to fill the corners. Slip several blouses into another plastic bag; put guidebooks, reservations and other information about each destination into separate bags. The plastic bags are slippery so you can slide them into tiny spaces to fill every chink.

Our limited wardrobe required periodic laundry days during the trip. We filled a bathtub with cold-water soap and water, soaked everything washable, then draped it on hangers all over the bathroom. The plastic bags also provided protection for those few times when something did not completely dry before we moved on.

If you collect as many guidebooks as we do, consider boxing them and shipping them home. When we knew we would be returning to a hotel after a side trip of a few days, we arranged to leave some of our extra things in temporary storage at the hotel. That enabled us to take three- and four-day trips with only two suitcases for the four of us. My secret weapon is a large shoulder bag (used for swimming when we are home) that holds all the things we may need daily: a folding umbrella, the guidebook for today's target, anyone's medications, phrase books, traveler's checks, passports -everything that won't fit in pockets.

We left all extraneous clothes at home: We were going there to see, not to be seen. Our only regrets were that we hauled along winter coats because we left on March 7 and it was still cold in Ohio. Light raincoats over jackets and sweaters sufficed everywhere. Our feelings of superiority as we sashayed past all the people waiting for baggage and searching for assistance made all our trouble worth it. MARGARET ROSENFELD Columbus, Ohio

Illustrations: photo of an elephant

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